Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 127933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
I was no fool.
I knew this obsession was a dangerous game, one I had to control. It wasn’t enough to simply have her. I needed to break her apart gently, to remake her into the perfect partner—a woman who wouldn’t just stand by me, but who would fall willingly into the darkness I ruled.
Lolita was meant to be a queen. And I was the king who would never let her go.
But I had to push her just a little further before our ceremony. She was close—so close to fully surrendering to me, body and soul. After this little incident, she needed to feel the weight of my absence. She had to realize how much she needed me. How much of her identity now revolved around being mine.
Two days. That’s all it would take. I would vanish—no contact, no presence. She would feel the distance, the silence, and it would eat at her. She would crave me, miss me in ways she hadn’t yet allowed herself to admit. By the time I returned, she’d be aching for me, desperate to be in my arms, to feel the security only I could provide. It was manipulation, yes. And it was necessary. She needed to understand that I was her everything, as much as she was mine.
The storm in her head had to match the calm of the Isle. When I came back to her, when I reminded her that I would never leave, she’d fall completely. She’d give herself to me entirely.
As we started to disperse, each of us with a task to complete, the sky began to clear. The Isle, always watching, always knowing, seemed to settle further. The storm had passed, and now it was time to prepare for the future. In four days, Lolita would stand beside me, not just as my Sponsa Diaboli, but as the mother of my child—the future of Stygian Isle. She would know without question that there was no world in which she didn’t belong to me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It had been two days since I’d seen Alexander. Two long, silent, agonizing days.
At first, I thought it was simply a brief separation after everything that had happened with Nicolette. I told myself he was busy, caught up in something that required his full attention, but that didn’t stop the gnawing sense that something was off. Alexander’s work was never-ending, but he always made time for me. The moments we shared, however fleeting, had become the foundation of my new reality.
So where was he now?
It was clear this was something more.
The flowers in my room hadn’t been exchanged since he left. They were already beginning to wilt at a rapid pace, petals falling, their once vibrant color draining. Alexander had been the one to personally swap them out each morning. It was always him. He liked to do it himself, insisting that no one else could choose the perfect bloom. I had grown accustomed to the subtle routine of waking up to fresh flowers, knowing they were placed by his hand. But now, nothing.
I wandered the halls, looking for some trace of him. The house felt eerily still. No distant murmur of his voice, no sign of the life he breathed into these walls. I searched for something—anything that would tell me where he had gone, but every room felt as empty as the last. No notes, no whispered promises. Just silence.
By the third night, I found myself on the rear deck, staring out at the lake.
The water stretched out before me, calm but dark, as if it, too, was holding onto some unspoken secret. I looked across to the lighthouse, its rotating beam cutting through the night in steady intervals.
Did he think I was going to run away that day?
The thought haunted me as I stood there, the cool night air brushing against my skin. Was this his way of testing me? Had he seen something in me during that chaotic day—something that made him question my loyalty? I could still feel the weight of his absence, an ache that settled deep inside me. He had become everything. I didn’t even realize how much until now. The longer he was gone, the more I craved him, needed him, and without him, the emptiness gnawed at me. It was unsettling how quickly he’d consumed my world, how deeply his presence had rooted itself inside me.
I glanced back at the house, expecting him to appear, but all I saw was the warm lights through the windows. It was late, and still no sign of him.
Has he been watching?
I didn’t want to admit it, but I was beginning to lose track of what was real and what was just in my head. As I stood on the deck, I thought I heard his voice again. I had conjured his voice so many times over the past few days. He was all I could think about. Him and this baby. The hairs on my neck stood on end as I heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps behind me, deliberate and familiar. Slowly, I turned around, my heart racing as my eyes locked on him.